Trump campaign cancels TV ads to try to figure out how to stop losing to Biden

Donald Trump’s campaign is removing its current television ads from the airwaves and reviewing its messaging strategy, hitting a full-scale reset button roughly three months out from Election Day, the Washington Post reports.

The move comes as Trump has fallen far behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, both nationally and in every critical swing state — making Trump an underdog.

It also comes two weeks after Trump replaced his former campaign manager Brad Parscale with Bill Stepien.

It’s unclear what the review will find.

However, the ads the Trump campaign has been airing have been painting the country he currently oversees as a dangerous and lawless place where protests are raging out of control, while warning that “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

But the images from in the ads were taken during Trump’s tenure, not Biden’s.

Polls show Trump’s attempt to stoke fears of crime and to paint himself as the “law and order” candidate are failing, as voters trust Biden more on the issue.

Another ad the Trump campaign released, on July 29, unsubtly paints Biden as “old,” using images of Biden making what looks to be confused faces — furthering Trump’s message that Biden is in cognitive decline.

Trump has been pushing that message, while at the same time touting his own mental faculties — bragging multiple times that he was able to pass a screening test for cognitive decline that asks test takers to identify animals and repeat a string of words.

A review of Trump’s ads from July using data from the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG found that of the $38 million the Trump campaign spent on the airwaves, not one ad focused on the coronavirus, HuffPost reported.

The coronavirus, however, is one of the top issues voters are basing their votes on in November, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll.

It’s not clear that any change in ad messaging can reset the campaign, as Trump repeatedly causes uproars and new media cycles with his own behavior.

On Thursday, for example, Trump mused about postponing the November election based on his false claim that it will be rife with fraud.

Even Republicans, who are typically reluctant to criticize Trump at all, said the election won’t be moved.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.